MXoN Open Letter: SM Action

The discussions that revolved around the results from the 2018 Motocross of Nations, held at RedBud, had finally fizzled out, until new information emerged earlier this week. It was announced by the FIM that Team Italy had been disqualified from the event, as illegal fuel was found in Michele Cervellin's YZ250F, and therefore The Netherlands were bumped into second place and Great Britain claimed third.

A statement from the SM Action Yamaha team can be viewed below (ConwayMX)

The SM Action Yamaha squad that Cervellin rides for have now spoken out to explain their side – their statement can be found below. This was originally published in Italian, so has been cleaned up to make more sense in English.

"The International Motorcycling Federation has announced the results of the counter analyzes performed on the petrol sample taken during the last Motocross of Nations. In the control carried out at Michele Cervellin, out of twenty-seven chemical components that make up the fuel "One Solo" was found to exceed the allowed limit.

The Yamaha SM Action Team is based on commercial gasoline and the controls carried out during the 2018 FIM Motocross World Championship have always been in good standing. On the occasion of the American trip it was decided not to bring fuel from Italy, but to use the local one. Unfortunately this choice did not turn out to be correct and this ingenuity led us to the disqualification of our driver and the cancellation of the excellent result obtained by the Italian team.

The Yamaha SM Action Team is first and foremost a united and cohesive group where everyone puts their commitment into achieving the best possible results. Every Sunday we put into practice our best professionalism and above all the passion we have for this sport. In light of what has emerged we can only apologise to all the Italian team and to all those who have rejoiced for the result. Our goal for 2019 will be to commit ourselves as we have always done and to give the Italian fans excellent results."

Michele Cervellin will ride for SM Action Yamaha once again this year and sit alongside Maxime Renaux in the MX2 class. Andrea Adamo and Michael Mantovani will contest the EMX250 division for the Italian squad.